Humane Society establishes new council seeking racing reform

In the Humane Society of America’s (HSUS) current issue of its national magazine, “Front Lines”, and on the heels of a local ABC-TV “7 On Your Side” two-part expose on numbers of equine deaths at Charles Town, WV race track, comes news of a first major effort to nationally reform the Thoroughbred industry and improve horse welfare.

To me, a former Thoroughbred owner with 650 races under my belt at a dozen U.S. tracks plus a few in the United Kingdom, this is not before time.  It is also surprising since one of the track giants of yesteryear, Joe De Francis, is heading up HSUS’s National Horse Racing Advisory Council to “reform the industry, protecting the sport’s image and, most importantly, horses.”

We competed horses at Laurel and Pimlico race tracks when De Francis was CEO of the Maryland Jockey Club in the 1980s and 1990s, moving horses to trainers at Charles Town when we retired to Front Royal in 2002.  There, we were to see two of them die in separate track-related accidents within six months of each other, the first fatalities for us in almost 20 years.  I complained to management of unsafe track conditions and our horses were banned from the local track (Nov. 2004 – January 2005) as a consequence.

In fact, approximately 1,200 horses a year die on the nation’s Thoroughbred race tracks – an average 24 a week, according to HSUS – and most of them due to doping which, over the years, has led to fans losing faith in the sport.  The ABC program said Charles Town falls within the average reported by HSUS’s writer, Karen E. Lange.

Lange wrote that the council’s first goal is replacing a patchwork of state laws governing horse medications with a single set of rules.  This likely would also cover Standardbred racing and govern medications for this particular breed that just a few weeks ago began competing at Shenandoah Downs in Woodstock.  Again, this is not before time since it would help protect ailing horses in all states from being doped to help them run.

“This is the number one thing that can be done to improve equine welfare in America,” De Francis is quoted as saying.

Amen.

Malcolm Barr Sr. in The River 95.3’s Front Royal studio during a 2007 interview with Roger Bianchini on “The Valley Today”. The topic was Barr’s book on his experience with Hampshire Partnerships, a cooperative way for less than millionaires to invest and see a return in horse racing.

(Malcolm Barr, Sr. of Front Royal is a retired international journalist (The Associated Press and newspapers in the U.S., UK, and Canada) and the operator for 21 years of the Hampshire Racing and Breeding Partnership (Hampshire Alliance, Inc).  He has been a contributing writer to Valley news organizations since retiring from U.S. government public affairs in Washington D.C. 14 years ago.  His book, “1,000 to 1 – Claiming, Breeding and Racing Thoroughbreds on a Shoestring – and Beating the Odds” is available through www.authorhouse.com)